


this could really be a good life

by harukatenoh



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Gen, Post-Canon, the gang plays DnD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-18 11:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13099407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harukatenoh/pseuds/harukatenoh
Summary: Freed from the shackles of having to save the world, the Seven (minus one) turn their sights to more mundane entertainment. There's still about the same amount of people coming close to death, and monsters, and danger, and betrayal, but all's fair in dungeons and dragons.





	this could really be a good life

**Author's Note:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS JESSICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! i hope u have a wonderful holiday and i hope this fic is to ur liking!  
> you listed pjo and dnd as your interests so i was like... genius idea. Combine Them. and out of that birthed this fic! :D also i didn't know what ships you liked so i kept it mostly gen (worked in some jercy because i could not resist tho rip) [this](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-v3DeUqCnPDFhQBeWAh-ry28S_P-NvVpZ7R-TI81HR4/edit?usp=sharing) is a reference page for everybody's characters, if u need it!
> 
> work title is from good life by one republic, a song that i have forever associated with pjo

Annabeth, from behind the intricately made screen set in front of her, cleared her throat. Everybody at the table—previously joking around and being loud and everything else that a rowdy group of teens did when they gathered—snapped to attention.

She allowed herself a small smile at that. But there were bigger things to attend to currently than basking in the respect her companions had for her.

With every eye in the room on her, she shuffled the papers in front of her. In truth, there was no reason for her to; she had already checked and rechecked that they were in order hours ago, but she enjoyed how the tension in the room grew as she stalled for time.

“Are we ready?”

She was greeted with nods and she grins. Oh, this was going to be _fun_.

“Welcome, brave adventurers…” she began, “to your very first campaign.”

Hours of stress, of forcing herself through that unnecessarily thick guidebook, of deliberating and planning, all came down to this. It was an idea that had been in the works for a long time, started by one offhand comment from Percy that, like many things that involved her chaotic friendship group, very quickly snowballed from there.

There were technical problems. Finding a time where all of them were free and were free for a while. The question of characters and backstories and filling in all of those details that nobody wanted to fill in.

The question of who would be DM—though this one was, admittedly, resolved pretty quickly. She did feel rather proud at how everybody conceded the position to her; her prowess with planning and literature and strategy made her ideal for it, really. Even though it was her first time, and there was a rather large number of players, she was confident as she gazed out at the people seated in a vague circle around her.

She felt _ready_ , like she was about to charge into a meticulously planned battle, comfortable with the knowledge that fate was on her side.

“We begin in the seaside town of Ionah, where there have been strange and dark rumours flying around.” Annabeth started, one eye on the bare-bones script in front of her and the other gauging her party’s reactions. “Kaelen, you have come here chasing after these rumours, which promise adventure and glory alike. Right now, you stand in the middle of the market, with stalls offering all kinds of wares, around you. What do you do?”

Jason blinked, not expecting to be the first person to be called upon. He took a while to think of a response, consulting his character sheet once as he was doing it, before he looked back up with a sly smile.

“Well, I’m feeling kind of hungry. Is there any food around?” he asked, obviously pleased with the topic that he was bringing up. Annabeth was suspicious; the character that Jason had given her to work with was… not what she had expected from him, but promised a lot of interesting times.

“You scan the stalls, and see a vendor selling fruit next to you,” she replied. She had mapped out this market in her planning since it was going to be the starting point for their journey, so she could easily visualise it in her head.

Jason nodded, musing for a while more.

“I want to try and steal an apple from there,” he finally said.

Percy, sitting beside Jason, whistled appreciatively. “That is not something I thought I would ever hear from you,” he teased with an elbow to Jason’s side. “Jason Grace, official _delinquent_ ,” Percy declared, sounding way too happy about it.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Actually, that’s ‘Kaelen Fuertes, official delinquent’. I have nothing to do with it.” He corrected, elbowing Percy right back as if they weren’t eighteen-year-olds who have saved the world multiple times.

Percy, as usual, wasn’t deterred by Jason’s correction. “You were the one who thought him up, Grace,” he responded, a familiar competitive tone that promised many headaches for Annabeth in the next few minutes coming up in his voice.

“So what does that make you, thinking up your straight-laced do-gooder character?” Jason replied, as calm as ever. Annabeth had to wonder why Jason knew what Percy’s character was like—they had decided to keep all of their characters a secret to make the party formation more interesting. Percy was obviously thinking up his next reply, but Annabeth had decided it was best she stopped this before it got out of hand.

“Boys,” she chided, “you can bicker like children outside of my campaign.”

They both shut up, to Annabeth’s relief, but the two continued to jab each other with their elbows. She wasn’t sure if they thought they were being subtle or the need to get on each other’s nerves weighed out any fear of her kicking them out, but she decided that she could let it pass.

Bringing them back on topic, she pulled out her favourite set of dice. “Very well, Kaelen. Roll a dexterity check for me.” She was rolling perception for the vendor as a counter, and her sense of justice increased the sense of victory she had by tenfold when she rolled a 17. There would be no apple theft under her watch.

The sense of victory dissipated pretty quickly when Jason rolled a 14, which, when with his modifier of +4, came to a total of 18.

She didn’t let her displeasure show on her face, keeping her voice level as she said “You successfully steal an apple,”

Jason grinned, giving a pleased “Hell yeah,” as Percy chanted “ _official delinquent, official delinquent_ ” into his ear. With Jason—well, Kaelen—dealt with, it was time to introduce the others.

“Briar,” she said, watching Piper come to attention from where she had been snickering at Jason’s other side, “you are patrolling the town your father has assigned you to, when you see somebody curious standing at a local fruit vendor’s stall. Please, roll perception for me.”

Piper grinned at Jason as she shook her dice in her hands. “You’re dead, Jason. I’m onto you.”

She released the dice onto the table in front of her, and everybody watched as it rolled to a stop on 17. Annabeth cast an eye onto Piper’s character sheet—she only had a modifier of +1 in wisdom, but she did have proficiency in perception checks. Which meant that she could add 2 to her roll, bringing her total to… 19. Beating out Jason’s roll of 18.

Annabeth smiled. “Briar, you watch as this person reaches over and steals an apple from the stall. What do you do?”

Piper poked her tongue out at Jason, who rolled his eyes. “Well, Annabeth,” she began, drawing out the _e_ in well, “I obviously pull out my sword. Stab first, ask questions later.”

Jason spluttered, turning to Annabeth. “Can she do that?”

Annabeth nodded. “She can do that. Kaelen, out of the corner of your eye, you see a guard storming up to you with her sword drawn. What do you do?”

“Um,” Jason said, blinking, “Kaelen draws his sword too. I mean I. I draw my sword too.”

Hazel huffed. “Not even five minutes in and we’re already trying to kill each other,” she muttered, earning responding snorts from Percy and Frank.

Annabeth had expected nothing less, which was why she had a plan up her sleeve.

“Briar, as you get closer to this thief, you notice something about him. Please, roll perception again for me.”

“Annabeth, I’m in the middle of trying to stab him.” Piper countered, but she rolled the dice nonetheless.

A 5. Even with Piper’s perception proficiency, she did not pass the check. Annabeth sighed.

“Briar, you feel like there’s something odd about this thief, but you’re too filled with righteous rage to really care, or look into it further.” Piper looked way too pleased with that, turning her smug expression onto Jason as she mouthed _you’re dead_ , earning a roll of the eyes from Jason and a snicker from Percy.

While Piper, Percy and Jason bothered each other, Annabeth turned to where Hazel was sitting on her right. Hazel met Annabeth’s eyes, a smile half-formed on her face as Annabeth said in a low tone, “Wanna help me sort out those two?”

Hazel laughed brightly, nodding. Annabeth turned back to the terrible trio—she had begun to refer to them in her head after hearing Nico use it—to find them still poking fun at each other. She levelled Percy, who was the easiest to intimidate in the group, with a glare, since he wasn’t even _part_ of the campaign yet and was essentially just egging the other two on.

Percy took the hint and pulled back from the other two, leaving them to fend for themselves underneath Annabeth’s stern gaze.

“Briar, you are almost within range of your sword when from behind the thief, a _Dragonborn_ picks him up by the collar and puts out a hand at you.”

“Oh, shit…” Percy whispered in the resulting silence at the table. Annabeth felt a familiar twinge of fond exasperation but continued on instead of acknowledging Percy’s live commentary.

“Kaelen, you feel yourself get lifted off the ground, though you can’t turn around to see what it is, you do see the guard walking up to you stop.” Jason nodded, eyes wide at the thought of a Dragonborn on their party. Annabeth, with perfect dramatic timing born from being a child of the gods, the most dramatic beings in the universe, turned to Hazel with a smile.

“Raiann, what do you do with the two people you’ve stopped from fighting in the middle of the market?”

“A _dragonborn_ ,” Frank whispered from beside Hazel, a light in his eyes. Hazel giggled, hand coming up to cover her smile.

“I fix them both with my worst glare and ask what they think they’re doing making a scene in the middle of the street.” She said, her voice light and teasing despite how serious her character was supposed to be.

“We have a party mum,” Percy whispered with a grin.

Piper was faster to respond than Jason, jumping in immediately to say “This man is a thief. I was simply trying to apprehend him.”

It was so bizarre to hear Piper speaking in such formal register, but it did fit her character. Annabeth had been worried that roleplay was one of the aspects that would be harder for everybody to get, but so far, things seemed to be okay.

Jason snapped back as soon as Piper was done. “She’s lying! I was just looking at things to buy when this weirdo pulled a sword on me!”

Piper scoffed. “I am a member of the guard and you are just some petty thief. Who would believe you over _me_?”

“Enough,” Hazel said, her tone severe. It was enough to make everybody stop, turning to shoot Hazel shocked looks at the downright _brutal_ tone she had taken on. Hazel was trying hard to not look too pleased.

Annabeth made eye contact with Frank during this brief standoff, nudging her head towards Jason. Frank seemed to understand and nodded, giving her a small smile. Frank and Jason had decided to have adjoining backstories, since they had both wanted characters with soldier backgrounds. It saved Annabeth having to find a way to introduce a character to the campaign, so she had allowed them to work together.

Frank cleared his throat. “I step up next to the guard—uh, Briar—and I’m like ‘Kaelen?’”

“Veit!” Jason replied in turn, his voice taking on a distinctly happier note. “Tell whoever this is to put me down!”

Hazel went to reply, but Annabeth cut her off before she could. “Raiann, you notice that this newcomer dwarf is wearing the military uniform. Specifically, the uniform of the division who have set up a base a few kilometres out of this town. When you look at the man you’ve picked up, you see the same uniform on him.” She explained, shuffling through her notes to see the military emblem she had sketched out last night and raising it up to show Hazel.

Hazel nodded, taking a moment to consider this information. “You two are with the army,” was all she said in the end, tone still more unimpressed than anything they had ever heard come out of Hazel’s mouth.

“Yes! Me and this guy, we’re with the army! See, I’m _not_ just a petty thief!” Jason directed this last comment to Piper, who huffed and stuck her nose up in a strikingly well-done piece of acting.

“You’re still a thief. See that apple he’s holding? He stole that. I saw him.” She pointed accusingly to Jason’s right hand. It was empty, but Percy still felt the need to inhale sharply afterwards.

“Jason,” he gasped, “how _could you_.” Annabeth supposed it was probably her fault for leaving Percy’s character’s introduction to the very end, resulting in a bored Percy who was apparently relying on adding running commentary and sound effects to their rapport to entertain him.

“You stole an apple?” Frank said, incredulous. Jason sighed deeply, in a moment of beautiful theatrics, and mimed tossing the apple over his shoulder.

“I throw the apple back onto the vendor’s stall and say ‘There! No more apple!’”

“Please roll a strength check for me,” Annabeth said coolly.

Jason rolled. The dice’s face landed on 8, bringing Jason’s total to 11. Jason winced.

“The apple lands on the vendor’s stall, but it rolls off.” She said matter-of-factly.

Jason muttered, “Well, not my problem anymore,”.

Annabeth caught Frank’s eye, making sure he could get what she was hinting towards when she asked him “Veit, you and your companion had something to do when you came to this town right?”

Frank nodded. With another theatrical sigh—DND was really bringing out the best in their acting skills—he tapped Hazel on the shoulder.

“Sorry about this guy, I can take it from here. Sorry to you too—” this, he directed to Piper, “—and as for _you_ ,” the words accompanying a glare to Jason, “if you needed food, just ask. We’re here to get to the bottom of these rumours, and we can’t do that if you’re in _jail_.”

It was kind of fun to watch Frank bossing around everybody, as Hazel obligingly agreed to release Jason.

With Kaelen firmly back on his feet and Piper’s sword sheathed, it was time to move the group along. Luckily for Annabeth, she didn’t need to prompt anybody, because Hazel was asking about the rumours that Frank had mentioned before she even opened her mouth.

“You’re looking into the disappearances around here?” Hazel asked. Frank and Jason exchanged looks, but Frank gave her an affirmative answer in the end. Annabeth was glad for that, because no amount of deception checks could’ve helped the two lie their way out of that situation.

Hazel nodded. “I am too. I’m Raiann. Somebody I know went missing a week ago… I’ve been chasing this trail ever since.”

Jason and Frank both hesitated. It was harder to look like they were colluding when Piper was between them, but Jason made a solid attempt at leaning towards Frank and somewhat whispering “We could use the help,”.

Frank agreed in the same obvious whisper, and when they moved back into their original positions—with Piper rolling her eyes in the background—Frank was the one to say “Team up with us.”

“Wait a minute.” Piper stepped in before Hazel could reply. Annabeth had almost forgotten that Briar was still standing at the scene, she was so caught up in the party slowly coming together, and the slip up stung more than she thought it would.

It was her first time DMing, sure, but to forget an entire character was present at the scene… it left a bad taste in her mouth.

“I cannot let you three roam around town causing havoc in this _quest_ of yours,” Piper continued, levelling each person she was talking to with a glare, before her face turned neutral. “If you had me… monitoring you, however, it would be safer.”

“Veit,” Jason said in a tone more smug than Annabeth thought he could manage, “I think that was Miss stick-up-her-ass’ way of asking to be a part of the team.”

Percy choked on the water he had been drinking when Jason said his brand new nickname for Briar. Hazel snorted loudly, and even Frank had a hard time keeping in his giggles as Piper’s mouth dropped open in shock.

Even Annabeth couldn’t keep from smiling as she saw how damn proud of himself Jason looked.

“W-well,” Piper snapped, tone icy just like Annabeth had imagined it would be when she had read Briar’s character profile, “Being a guard, I also have greater access to places around the town, and could get you information from the guard records. I would be an _asset_. For example, I know somebody who I’ve been informed has information on the rumours that nobody else has.”

Jason grimaced. “And what is in it for you, huh?”

Frank and Hazel both nodded their assent to the question, suspicious gazes cast upon Piper. She simply shrugged, a cold veneer firmly in place. “I have my own reasons. You would be fools to turn me down.”

“Well call me a fool an—”

Frank cut Jason off. “Fine. You can join us.” Then turning to Jason, who was ready to protest, he said “We need the information, Jas—I mean, Kaelen. We’ve been grasping at straws for ages.”

Piper’s smirk was downright cruel.

Hazel noticed immediately, sighing as she said “Let’s try to get along,” in that same, intense tone that made everybody much more inclined to listen to her.

“So? What’s your lead, Miss stick-up-y—” Jason began.

Piper cut him off with a snapped “ _It’s Briar_ ,”, even though her expression was light as Jason and Percy snickered.

“Fine,” Jason said, trying to sound less amused, “Briar. What’s your lead?”

Piper looked over at Annabeth. Annabeth shuffled her papers—not that she needed them, but it seemed to centre her as everybody turned back to her.

“Briar, you caught wind of a druid—” and she had to struggle to ignore Percy’s delighted gasp “—running a store in this town who had been talking about seeing something in the woods where everybody has been disappearing. The store is a block or so away from here, and you were meaning to drop by at the end of your guard shift.”

Piper nodded. “Yeah, what she said,” She shrugged at everybody else. Annabeth smiled at that, as everybody made plans to go to the store after getting food (“Legally,” Piper was saying with a glare at Jason). Percy was staring at her, excitement obvious in his features as his green eyes sparkled.

“It’s me, right? I’m a druid who owns a potion store. It’s my turn to be introduced, isn’t it!” He gushed, becoming more excited with every word. Annabeth waved him off but she was grinning, because his enthusiasm was infectious and she _had_ been a little unfair with how she distributed playtime in the introduction.

They decided to do a short time skip, since Annabeth had nothing planned for their trip to the store and everybody wanted to get things moving, which put the four of them in the position of entering Percy’s store.

“You stand in a store much larger than you would assume looking from the outside, and fill to the brim of plants. They grow over the shelves, onto the floor, hang from the ceiling. You also notice several small ponds dotted around, either in glass bowls or on the floor or even in some cases, suspended in the air. The air is _full_ of magic and the shelves are full of books and potions, and you swear that the plants turn to look at you as you file into the store.” Annabeth passionately detailed the store that she and Percy had spent hours designing, because it was one of her favourite locations in the campaign.

She must have taken too long, because Percy was jumping the gun before she could even introduce his character, giving a low “Welcome, travellers.”

Annabeth shot him a glare. “Even though this shop is full of wonders to keep your minds occupied for hours, your attention is immediately drawn to the counter at the back of the store. Sitting behind it, cradling one of the floating ponds that dot the store, is a human woman.

“You’re playing a girl?” Frank cut in, breaking the atmosphere that Annabeth had gotten going. She tried not to let her displeasure show on her face as Percy huffed at Frank.

“Yeah! I wanted to change things up!” Percy said, immediately fired up.

“Oh,” Frank said, “Cool.”

Annabeth, Piper and Hazel all traded tired looks.

“Are we done?” Annabeth said pointedly, receiving a sheepish look from Jason and Percy in response as they both nodded. “Alright, did you guys decide who was going to do the talking?” She asked, casting an eye over the four who had met prior. She would’ve chosen Veit to do it, since Frank’s character was probably the most personable, but it was Piper who stuck her hand up.

“Larinna, you watch as a half-elf woman dressed in guard gear steps up towards your counter, and you have a feeling that big things are about to happen in this once peaceful town.”

* * *

 

It was their first fight. It was, even by their standards, going spectacularly terribly. Currently, Larinna and Kaelen were facing off against a group of rabid dire wolves as the rest of the party hid in a tree. Annabeth didn’t know why it had to be Percy and Jason of all combinations of people to be caught in the fight, but the others had decided to stay out of it until they could successfully stage a surprise attack.

That left Percy and Jason to fend for themselves and work together, in the meantime.

“Use _thunderwave_!” Jason hissed again at Percy, who was desperately scanning through the list of spells he had available.

“No!” Percy snapped back as he reached for his dice. “It hits everybody in a fifteen-foot radius around me! You’ll be caught in the blast!”

“I can take it, just do it, Perce!” Jason snapped back, so caught up in the moment that he didn’t even notice Piper and Hazel giggling at the innuendo.

“No, I’ve got it! _Poison spray_!” Percy said frantically, waving the piece of paper with his spells at Jason.

“Spell modifier?” Annabeth asked quickly.

“Fourteen!” Percy almost yelled back. If Annabeth had been any less caught up in the moment, she would’ve laughed at how serious Percy looked, but here she was, frowning down at her dice as she attempted the constitution saving throw for the closest wolf.

She rolled an 11. “Fuck,” she muttered under her breath, looking up the spell in her guidebook to see the damage.

“Okay, Larinna, roll a d12 for damage.” She instructed. Percy, quickly realizing the command meant he had hit, fist pumped.

“Fuck yeah!” He said, changing the direction of his fistbump to meet Jason in an enthusiastic fistbump. The damage he rolled totalled to 8, not enough to take out the dire wolf, but enough to cause some damage. It was too bad for them that there were five wolves, three of which came in the rolling order before Jason could have his turn.

The three wolves took their turns. When coupled with the fact that all of the wolves could attack twice, since they had the double-roll attribute, it was a shock to anybody that at the end of it Percy and Jason’s characters were still standing. Barely.

“Uh, guys,” Jason said, “Help would be appreciated about now.”

“Jay, get your ass over here,” Percy hissed, “I’m casting cure wounds on you.”

“Cast it on yourself! You’re more useful in this fight than me!” Jason protested, batting away the hand that Percy had extended to him, both of them apparently forgetting that they were roleplaying.

“You have a very sharp sword! I have nothing but a staff!” Percy countered, picking up a pencil nearby and waving it around as if to prove his point.

“You have magic!”

“You’re _buff_ and can fight!”

“Is anybody sensing any latent sexual tension between their characters,” Piper said offhandedly, causing Hazel and Frank to break into laughter. Percy and Jason turned to glare at her.

“Shouldn’t you be helping!” Jason snapped at the exact time Percy retorted “You’re not even _doing anything_ ,” and the synchronization just seemed to prove Piper’s point further, with Frank and Hazel beginning to laugh harder.

Percy did end up healing Jason on that turn, which was the right idea because the next hit Jason took would’ve taken him out otherwise. The other three members of their party chose that moment to drop from the trees, gaining an attack opportunity on all four remaining wolves.

With the numbers evened out more, they managed to scrape by in the battle. It helped that Annabeth’s rolling took a turn for the worse in the second half of the battle, much to her chagrin—she had begun to understand the joy some DMs took in managing to wipe out entire parties at some point during the fight, with adrenaline running in her veins.

Luckily, Larinna’s character had brought along several health potions, bringing the party back to almost full health as they travelled further into the woods, looking for the strange apparition that Larinna had sighted.

The campaign went on, with the party unaware that they were being watched. None of them came close to having enough wisdom to succeed on the perception rolls required to notice, and Annabeth was glad that the screen in front of her could hide some of her face, just to conceal the smirk on it.

* * *

 

“Sister!” Hazel gasped as she saw the corpse that was laid out on the ground, as if it had been placed there for them.

Well, it had, but nobody but Annabeth knew that.

“You sister was taken by that thing?” Jason asked, aghast as he took in the corpse on the ground.

“I reach out to grab it,” Hazel said, grim in her determination. Both Piper and Frank protest this move, but it was too late, and Annabeth was grinning as she rolled the dice.

“As your hand touches your poor, lovely sister’s face, her hand shoots up to grab your wrist. Before you can even do anything, your sister—no, the _thing_ in front of you is coming alive and twisting your wrist around to pin behind your back.”

Piper muttered, “I told you so,”. Frank hissed shit.

“The illusion on the corpse falls away, and although you cannot see it, Raiann, everybody else watches as the Scythian dracaena appears from behind the facade.”

“Oh, fuck this,” Percy groaned, slumping back onto his chair. “I _hate_ those things.”

“Now, now,” Annabeth said, her tone taking on a low, sultry sound—as much as she hated it—“you wouldn’t want your friend to get hurt.”

“I’m impressed,” Piper stage-whispered to Frank, “she managed to not include a single ‘s’ in that sentence.”

Frank, despite the severity of the situation, laughed. It brought a smile to everybody else’s face as well, with Hazel giggling into her hand as she weakly protested “Hey! I’m being held hostage here!”

“I would hate to have to kill a fellow reptilian…” Annabeth continued, drawing a finger across her neck. “The dracaena is holding Raiann by the wrist with her left hand, and holding her chin with another.”

“What do we do?” Frank asked, looking at where Jason and Percy were sitting and frowning at Hazel.

“Ideas, Grace?” Percy asked as he continued to stare Hazel down.

“Lemme see,” Jason replied.

Hazel, uncomfortable under their gaze, shook her head. “How about I just save myself,” she said dryly, turning away from where the two boys sat to look at Annabeth. “Can I try flipping her over?”

Annabeth smiled. “Sure. Roll a strength check for me, please.”

Hazel rolled. Everybody watched as the dice wobbled on the edge, before finally tipping over to a 20. The first natural 20 of the game.

“Hell. Fucking. Yes.” Percy said solemnly, raising his hand up for a high five from Hazel. She high fived him with a grin.

“So, Raiann. How do you want to do this?” Annabeth asked, trying to keep the smile off of her face. Hazel’s expression lit up as she realized the implications of that question, with excited hoots accompanying it from Piper and Percy.

“Let’s see…” Hazel started, putting in a pause that Annabeth was certain was only there for dramatic tension. Dramatics were definitely a demigod thing, she mused, judging from what she’d seen in only three hours of gameplay.

“I headbutt the dracaena, and then I step on its weird trunk thing, and then I pull my hand out of its grasp and grab it and _slam it_ onto the ground, while yelling ‘That’s for my sister!’”

Percy cheered. Piper clapped. Jason and Frank both laughed, eventually joining in on the applause.

Hazel looked incredibly pleased with herself as Annabeth nodded, detailing the dracaena’s downfall exactly as Hazel had described.

“Hazel, please roll damage. I would say… three d10s?” Annabeth instructed. Hazel somehow lit up even more at the damage die required, scrambling to borrow d10s from everybody else and rolling them in delight.

A 4, a 9 and an 8. Overall, it brought Hazel’s headbutt-stomp-slam to a total of 21 damage. Due to it being blunt force trauma, Annabeth also counted it as knocking the dracaena out.

Percy and Piper’s characters busied themselves with tying up the enemy, to be interrogated for later. As they did this, Frank nodded at Hazel, giving her a thumbs up that she responded to with a sunny grin.

“Good job,” Frank said, in his Veit voice.

Hazel, in a tone softer than she usually took for Raiann, said “Thank you very much.”

Piper and Percy had no hesitation in _ooooooh_ ing at the exchange, with Piper throwing in a wolf whistle for good measure.

Hazel and Frank just smiled, pleased with themselves, as if they thought that nobody knew they were holding hands under the table.

Well, as their dungeon master, Annabeth’s job was to know everything about the party. And that definitely extended to illicit hand holding at her party table. Still, she let them be. Piper and Percy would give them enough shit for it when—and she said when, because they were all demigods after all—they found out.

* * *

 

They were on their eighth hour of DND. Annabeth had no idea how the time passed so quickly, but it was now verging on three am and they were so close, so close to finishing. Everybody was wide awake, thanks to a coffee and toilet break that Hazel had suggested at about the five hour mark, and tensions were running high as everybody felt the end approach.

They were embroiled in a fight with the same apparition that Larinna had seen, the final boss of the campaign. Briar was down for the count and on her last death saving throw—her turn was four people away, and the apparition was showing no signs of faltering.

Percy was grasping Piper’s hand across Jason’s part of the table, and it was a testament to how involved everybody currently was that Jason didn’t even protest.

“I’ve got you Briar, I’ve got you, just wait one more turn and I can heal you,” Percy chanted, scanning his stats to see if he had any proficiency in medicine. The turn standing between Percy possibly saving Piper was Frank’s, his face scrunched up in concentration as he stared down at his dice.

“I’m using the sword. The, flame one.” He said, picking up the iten card that Annabeth had given him when he had taken the sword from an enemy. Annabeth nodded.

“Please roll to hit.” She said, tone belying none of the adrenaline she was feeling.

Frank rolled a 19, totalling 23 with his modifier added. A definite hit.

“Roll damage, please. Two d10 fire damage.”

Frank nodded, expression grim. His total damage only came to 8, with an unfortunate roll of 2 and 6, but it didn’t matter. Annabeth breathed out slowly.

“Veit, you swing your sword at the apparition, and it definitely connects. However, instead of taking the hit and seemingly brushing it off like before, the apparition lets out a _screech_ . You can see the sword digging into it’s—it’s not flesh, but it’s something. And you also watch as the apparition starts to _dissolve_ where the flames touch it, like it’s being eaten away by something.”

Percy gasped, standing up in his seat and pointing at the apparition’s icon on Annabeth’s hand drawn map of the area. “It’s some type of shadow… thing… whatever! That doesn’t matter! What matters is that light or fire must hurt it! That’s why our attacks haven’t been working well!”

He said it all in one outburst, leaving the room hanging in silence as soon as he was done. Frank  was the first to snap back, with a mumbled “Shit, you’re right,” as he read the item card for the flame sword.

“You’re a druid! You have all that nature stuff down pat, you need to kill it!” Jason said, pulling Percy down into his seat again. Percy, however, shook his head, looking over at where his hand was still in Piper’s.

“My turn is for stabilizing her.” He said firmly. Piper gave an unbelieving scoff.

“Leave me alone, Larinna, if you don’t deal some serious damage to that thing right now, it’s going to be bad! We can’t afford to let it have another turn.”

Percy shook his head, leaning over Jason to glare at Piper.

“Briar, I’m not letting you die.”

“It’s _okay_ , just kill that bastard for me.”

“No! The victory isn’t worth it if you’re not here to see it!”

Frank groaned. “If you two are _done_ acting lines out of a terrible action film, we have a shadow monster to kill!”

Percy and Piper unwillingly separated, to the relief of Jason.

“We were in the zone,” Percy said sullenly, Piper voicing her assent. “I’m still healing you though, Briar.”

This time, Piper only made a grunt of protest.

“You cast cure wounds?” Annabeth said, just to confirm.

“Damn fucking right I do.”

With the extra hit points, Briar regained consciousness. It didn’t stop Piper from rolling her eyes at Percy and calling him a “dramatic loser”, but it did add a fifth fighter to their party again, which Annabeth knew they sorely needed. They had figured out the trick to beating the final boss, but all of their blows from before had only done half damage, so they had a lot of lost time to make up.

The next turn in the order was Hazel, who was out of spell slots and only armed with a bow and arrows. Annabeth knew that Percy was down to his last spell slot after healing Piper, which severely reduced what the party could do.

“Wait, I have matches, right?” Hazel asked. If Annabeth could remember properly, her dungeon pack contained torches and thus matches, so she nodded in response to Hazel’s question. She had a feeling she knew where Hazel was going.

“Okay, I’m going to set my arrows on fire and shoot it. Is that like, a bonus action and an action?”

Annabeth wasn’t exactly sure, but it sounded like it, so she nodded in response to that too. Hazel nodded sharply, a small “ _yes_ ” sounding as she scanned her character sheet.

“Roll to hit?”

Her roll totalled to 18, which just managed to beat the apparition’s armour.

“You manage to hit the apparition in the chest, not quite where its heart would be if it was human, but a very square shot nonetheless. It screeches again, trying to get away from the fire, but it’s very firmly lodged in there.

“Please, roll for damage. Two d12s of fire damage, and then double it.”

“Oh _shit_ ,” Frank said, breathless with excitement.

“You go, girl.” Piper giggled, eyes riveted to the dice in Hazel’s hands. Hazel released them onto the table and the whole party seemed to hold their breath and wait as the dice tipped.

Onto a 1, and a 10, respectively.

“Fuck!” Hazel exclaimed. Everybody else that the table, except Annabeth, repeated the sentiment. Twenty-two damage was still pretty impressive, and Annabeth made sure to tell everybody that the apparition was definitely feeling the effects now.

The news was met with relief, but it wasn’t over yet. It was the apparition’s turn, and Annabeth had some tricks up her sleeve.

In her head, she made a quick inventory. Frank was the biggest threat at the moment, with a sword of fire. Percy would normally be the biggest threat, being a druid, but he only had the ability to conjure fire—he would have to get close if he wanted to do any damage. Hazel’s fire arrows were bad news, but she could only shoot one at a time, and the arrows burnt out pretty quickly. Piper and Jason were both essentially useless, for the time being.

She knew what she had to do.

“The apparition aims for Veit, its hand shaped into claws.” She said. Nobody around the table was too surprised—they had all expected it, since Frank posed the most threat. “Veit, please roll a dexterity saving throw.

Frank, a frown on his face, rolled a 10. It came to 13 in total, but the party could probably see in Annabeth’s facial expression that it wasn’t enough. Why should she hide it? It wasn’t. She had rolled a 19 for that attack.

“The apparition lunges for Veit and it hits, the claws scraping across his face. However, Veit, you don’t feel any pain, even though you know that you just got clawed across the eyes. No, all you feel is a slight tingling.”

Everybody in the room stilled, waiting for Annabeth’s next words.

“When you open your eyes again Veit, all you see is darkness.”

Frank breathed out slowly, biting his lip as he tried to gauge the situation.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Piper hissed. “Is it a spell?”

“It’s probably some fucked up shadow magic,” Percy groaned, his hands balled into fists with frustration. “I don’t have any spell-breaking spells though, I can’t do anything about it.” Their gazes turned to Hazel, who shook her head.

“No spell slots.”

“Ugh!” Piper groaned. “Fine. We can deal with that later, Veit, give me your sword. It’s my turn, right? I move to him.”

Annabeth nodded, smiling despite herself.

“Veit, from your left, you hear something screech. It sounds like the apparition, and it’s approaching quickly. You can take a reaction to this—what do you do?”

Frank was too worried to think it fully through when he said “I swing my sword in that direction I guess…” and Piper’s “Wait, Frank!” came too late to stop his words.

“Veit, you swing your fire sword right at Briar.”

Frank went pale.

“Please roll damage. Two d10 fire damage, just like before.”

Frank’s hands were shaking as he rolled, two 7s on the faces of the die. Piper put her face in her hands, mumbling something about only having ten hit points left, when Annabeth shook her head.

“You’ll be fine, Briar.” She said. Percy, sitting beside Annabeth, sighed.

“Before the sword can hit Briar, Larinna jumps forward and pushes her out of the way. In doing so, she catches the brunt of the attack, with the sword slashing into her shoulder and some of her back. In addition to the damage, Larinna, your clothes are now on fire, which will give you sustained damage over time unless you put it out, and for now, gives you one d4 of fire damage. Please roll for that, Frank.”

Annabeth delivered the words calmly, despite the gaping from everybody except Percy.

“I set up a reaction… like, ages ago, that if somebody was going to take a life-threatening hit and I was in range, I would jump in instead. Uh… surprise?”

Piper groaned. “You’re the only other person with fire powers around here, dipshit! What are we going to do if you’re dead!”

“Hey, I’m still here,” Hazel cut in, “but you do have a point.”

“It’s not like I could’ve predicted we’d be in this situation!” Percy protested. “And anyway, I still have two hit points left.”

“Don’t say it out loud!”

Piper and Percy glared at each other. Jason, between them, sighed and placed a hand on both of their shoulders, patting them placatingly.

“It is what it is. Let’s just figure out where we go from here. Piper, it’s still your turn.” Jason reminded, any traces of his troublemaker DND persona gone as he played peacemaker. They both seemed to calm down at Jason’s touch, thank god, and the party returned to the problem at hand.

“Sorry, Piper,” Frank said, scratching the back of his head. Piper shook her head, throwing an arm around Frank.

“Hey, it’s not like it was your fault! And you didn’t even hit me, because some self sacrificing loser got in the way.” Piper said that last part with a poke of the tongue at Percy, who, acting like the eighteen year old he was, poked his tongue out right back.

“I can’t really do anything except stab it so, I’m going to stab it.” Piper declared after a minute of thinking intensely about her skillset. She rolled to hit, managed to just scrape past with a 17, and dealt four points of damage—originally eight, but halved due to the fact she was using a normal weapon.

Jason’s turn went much the same; Annabeth had not been joking when she said that the two were essentially useless, and then the order returned to Frank.

“You can choose to not do anything this turn, if you wish.” Annabeth said, even though technically, Veit didn’t know that he had hit an ally with his earlier reaction. There was probably no good reason for him to skip the turn but, Annabeth was feeling somewhat merciful.

Frank, with clear relief in his face, said “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

With Frank’s turn skipped, the order came to Percy. He had been looking over his spells list for a while now, and there was a smile on his face that told Annabeth she should be worried.

“So,” Percy began, in the same tone that had promised disaster many times before, “I’m a mountain druid. And I have spells, circle spells, to be precise, that don’t need preparation.”

Yeah, this was definitely going to lead to disaster.

“And one of those spells happens to be _lightning bolt_. So, with my precious last spell slot, I’m going to pull a Jason—” that got him a jab in the side and several laughs “—and shoot lightning at it. Oh, also, I’m going to conjure up some water and put the fire on me out.”

Annabeth hadn’t anticipated the circle spells, but she was a little proud of Percy for remembering them. With a nod, she flipped to the description of _lightning bolt_. It was probably one of the best spells to use against the apparition, which made it one of the worst spells in her eyes right now. Still, she sighed and told Percy to roll for damage—a whole eight d6, then doubled, since it was against the apparition.

Instead of asking other people for some, Percy painstakingly rolled his solitary d6 eight times, each time the damage stacking up more and more, until he reached a total of twenty-eight hit points.

With that terrifying number in mind, Annabeth prayed she could make the dexterity saving throw.

Clearly, Tyche was not looking down kindly on her, as Annabeth’s dice landed on 13.

The apparition took the fifty-six points of damage. It left it on very, very unsteady legs, as Annabeth did the maths and realized that it only had two hit points left.

It was Hazel’s turn, and Annabeth realized that her campaign was going to draw to a close. Hazel lit another arrow up, releasing the dice onto the table. It clattered to a stop on 3.

Hazel put her head down on the table in frustration.

“Raiann, you are so shaken by the events you just saw, and weakened by the apparition’s earlier attacks, that your arrow goes completely wild and embeds itself into the ground a few metres away from the apparition.” Annabeth said, barely keeping the excitement out of her voice.

It was the apparition’s turn again.

She turned to look at Percy, who blanched as soon as he met her eyes.

“No.” He said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Annabeth laughed. “Oh, yes.”

Annabeth rolled a natural 20. She attributed it to how badly she had wanted to kick Percy’s ass ever since he had surpassed her in swordfighting.

With the exact same health points as Larinna had, the apparition clawed—actually clawed—across her chest, taking out a whole fifteen hit points.

“Tis but a scratch,” was what Larinna’s proclaimed last words were, as Percy dramatically fell on the table.

“No, Larinna!” Jason called out, grabbing Percy by the lapels.

Percy looked up at Jason, slowly and tenderly reaching up a hand to cup his cheek. It was so dramatic it was actually impressive.

“Kaelen…” Percy whispered, pulling out his best impression of a dying person. And when you considered that Percy had seen, and interacted with many dying people in his life—it was a pretty damn good impression.

“Don’t leave me…” Jason whispered, accompanying it with a fake sniffle.

“I… I lo—”

Percy collapsed in Jason’s arms.

Jason, the perfect picture of anguish, pulled Percy closer to him. “No! Larinna! I’ll never forget you!”

Annabeth gave them a few moments, then cleared her throat.

“Are you two done?”

Very reluctantly, Jason and Percy pulled apart from each other. Piper, watching them critically, shook her head.

“Heterosexuals. In _my_ DND party.” She said blankly, her tone somehow still dripping with judgement.

“I’ll avenge you,” Jason told Percy, their hands clasping together in pact. Percy raised his eyebrows, but didn’t point out what everybody else was thinking; Jason’s turn was still one person away.

Piper sighed, a fond smile on her face as she pulled out her dice to roll. They had reached the stretch of people who had no real use in the battle against the apparition—of course, with two hit points remaining, anybody could be useful, but the party didn’t know that. Piper was dubious about her chances as she cast the dice, and it reflected in the roll as she got a mere 7.

And then, it was Jason’s turn. He was still holding Percy’s hand, which brought the table’s hand-holding count to two; two too many. With his other hand, Jason rolled the dice.

It wobbled on an edge for a while, as if Tyche was too playing up luck for dramatic tension, but when the dice landed, it landed on a beautiful, pristine 20.

Jason whooped, turning to Percy who had a matching ecstatic expression.

“Roll for damage, please,” Annabeth gritted out through clenched teeth from how hard she was trying not to smile.

Jason rolled for five damage points.

Annabeth did smile this time, when she asked “How would you like to do this?”

Cheers went up around the table, Percy and Piper leaning over to hug Jason at the same time and having their hands collide.

Jason was grinning so hard he looked like he would burst.

“I want to go ‘This one’s for Larinna!’ and then stab it in the head.”

This response was greeted with more cheers, and a particularly emotional “Jay, you’re my _hero_ ,” from Percy.

Annabeth couldn’t keep herself from laughing as she described it; Kaelen, on his last legs, striding up to the apparition and shouting “For Larinna!” like a warcry, before sticking his rapier in the head of the shadow monster.

“The blade lodges in its head, and everybody—except Larinna—watches as the apparition gives one last unholy shriek, and dissolves into nothing. Kaelen’s rapier clatters to the ground with a final echo.”

“YES!” Percy shouted.

There was clapping. There were high fives. There was, from Percy and Jason, a very intricate handshake exchanged.

Annabeth detailed their escape from the cavern, returning to the town where they started all of their adventures. She finished the last part of her script, feeling fulfilled beyond anything she had ever felt before—and she had saved the world before.

When she was done, she realized every eye was on her. Everybody had a similar, warm expression on their face.

“Annabeth,” Piper began, and it seemed to raise the floodgates, because right after that, everybody was clamouring with praise.

“You did so well, that was so amazingly planned—”

“—the _plot_ , gods, that was so intruiging, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time—”

“—and look at these maps! Holy shit, Annabeth, these are so detailed and—”

“WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO SAY IS,” Piper said, raising her voice to overpower everybody else. Everybody shut up after that, and Annabeth had to wonder if Piper had worked any charmspeak into those words. “We’re proud of you, ‘Beth. That was really, really, _really_ —” and just for emphasis, Percy added another “really” under his breath “—wonderful, and you should be proud of yourself too.”

Annabeth felt herself smile, and let herself really truly feel it—pride. Even though she had just spent the entire night doing the most nerdy thing of her life, even if it was now nearing four am, even if she was at a summer camp and far away from her family, she felt at home.

“Thank you,” she said, hoping that her friends would understand how much feeling she put in those words. Judging from their expressions, they did.

“And,” she added, leaning in closer and dropping her voice, “stay tuned for the sequel.”

**Author's Note:**

> leo isn't here because 6 people is a lot of people to keep track of in a dnd campaign, even a fake one, and so this is set in the time between defeating gaea and when he comes back. sorry im a leophobe.


End file.
